On day three in Joshua Tree National Park, we headed over to the northwest side of the park. Now we’re officially in the Mojave Desert, which is this cool spot that bridges the Sonoran and the Great Basin. And guess what? The unique plants here definitely include the Joshua Tree! There are tons more of them on this side, and they get pretty big. Tony totally gets why they call them trees now. Just looking at their trunks with a bark-like covering, it’s easy to see, even though they’re really just yuccas.

Joshua Tree Lake RV Park

The temperatures here at the park are unseasonably warm in the upper 80s, and not knowing what we might get for temperatures, we planned for a couple of days with hookups following our stay at a park campground without hookups and showers. The Joshua Tree Lake RV Park is a private campground north of the park between the two entrance stations. The nearby town, Twentynine Palms, is known for their art scene and the road leading to the RV park is evident of the local (visiting?) artists.

The RV park is a charming place with lots of art and a dedicated space for music festivals. We are grateful for the AC that we can run without monitoring our batteries and and it has a very nice shower house.

Day 3 Hikes: Skull Rock and Ryan Mountain

Skull Rock is an iconic, roadside photo op along Park Boulevard. We notice that we are now in the more popular part of the park with an increase in traffic along this road and parking spots being larger but more crowded. After waiting for others to get their pictures, we climbed up on rocks to get a good image of Skull Rock then we hiked the Skull Rock Loop that brought us back to the van.

Ryan Mountain is a three-mile hike that gains over a thousand feet of elevation and is described as being on a StairMaster exercise machine. Rather than using switchbacks, the trail meanders around the side of the mountain, guaranteeing variation of view while climbing relentlessly upward. Kudos to the team that put in this trail as it is beautiful and uses rock already present.

Today we had to show our park pass upon exiting the park. No one checked us at the southern gate two days ago, so this would be their chance to make sure we have paid necessary fees. We’ve never shown our pass before while exiting any of the national parks. Novel way to do it.

Day 4 Hikes: Wall Street Mill and Barker Dam

Wall Street Mill is an out-and-back hike that ends at an old mill with original equipment to be seen and several rusting autos to explore. We really didn’t know that cars were manufactured using wood as a base material. Dad says my grandmother’s ‘31 Chevy two-door sedan had all the major parts in wood with metal cover. Buick continued with wood in some of their models up into the 1950s. Very interesting!!!

The equipment is a reminder that this land wasn’t always a protected park. People lived here and tried to use this land for various schemes. The Worth Bagley Stone is a reminder of that colorful past. William F. Keys, the owner of the Wall Street Mill, shot and killed Worth Bagley at this spot in a land dispute. Keys spent time in San Quentin for manslaughter, and then carved a marker for Bagley when he returned home. The original was a stone carving, but was vandalized in 2014.

Barker Dam, built by early ranchers to create a reservoir for cattle, had a park ranger giving some information to a group viewing the remains of the dam. He said he has only seen it full of water twice in the eight years he has been here. There was some water now, but not much. Nice to see some water in the desert, though!

And there is evidence of Native Americans’ presence in the form of petroglyphs and bedrock mortars on this hike. We also noticed some rock climbers heading out with crash pads to keep their bouldering adventures safer. We didn’t get to see them in action, unfortunately.